It has been well over a year now and I would have thought the dispute between SCEE MediaWorks and Prime would have been sorted by now. Does anyone have any updates on this? It is a shame the EPG is limited due to this. I would have thought SCEE would have been “on the case” with this using the “community favourites” function on PlayTV as a positive feature to the networks, community favourites is an awesome real time “people meter” which would benefit the networks

Sony was brave/stupid to release their product on the hope that it would be able to quickly provide the EPG data. TIVO is the only other similar situation and they are finally not too far away from having all channels, currently only missing Prime by all accounts. There just hasn't been the numbers/pressure from owners of PlayTV devices compared to the push TIVO has had.

Sony was brave/stupid to release their product on the hope that it would be able to quickly provide the EPG data. TIVO is the only other similar situation and they are finally not too far away from having all channels, currently only missing Prime by all accounts. There just hasn't been the numbers/pressure from owners of PlayTV devices compared to the push TIVO has had.

Cheers for that, I know the sales of PlayTV have been very high especially when the price dropped looking at “community favourites” on any particular night there are hundreds on line in New Zealand, in real time you do see all the networks and it shows some very interesting statistics which I am sure in particular MediaWorks would be interested in, I will put it this way viewer ratings on TV3 most nights are very good to amazing.

I didn't know playtv had the same problem tivo will soon not have. Probably should complain to both sony and the networks that aren't on the epg. It hurts their advertisers, as people won't watch a channel if they don't know whats on.

mattwnz: I didn't know playtv had the same problem tivo will soon not have. Probably should complain to both sony and the networks that aren't on the epg. It hurts their advertisers, as people won't watch a channel if they don't know whats on.

With MediaWorks and Prime the EPG does work but you can only see a few events ahead. PlayTV uses the TVTV mapping for populating the EPG. I think Prime and MediaWorks are being a bit stubborn with this one, with MediaWorks I think their noises where put out of joint when the PS3 introduced TVNZ on demand!! I can’t understand why any network would be against 3rd parties like SCEE using the EPG information, surly it is to the networks advantage....

mattwnz: I didn't know playtv had the same problem tivo will soon not have. Probably should complain to both sony and the networks that aren't on the epg. It hurts their advertisers, as people won't watch a channel if they don't know whats on.

Well, that's one way of looking at it. Here's another:

The quality of programming is so poor that the EPG often just confirms that there is nothing worth watching on. There may be a commercial advantage in not having an EPG as people will have to switch to the channel in the forlorn hope of something decent, and be exposed to advertising before moving on when they discover that it's just the same old drivel.

How is the EPG on the playtv delivered? I presume it is retreived online like the tivo? It doesn't really help freeviews reputation either having the EPG blocked , and instead a message telling people to contact the problem channel. Even though officially it probably isn't an official freeview device. Although my new tivo had a freeview brochure included inside it even though it isn't an official device.

mattwnz: How is the EPG on the playtv delivered? I presume it is retreived online like the tivo? It doesn't really help freeviews reputation either having the EPG blocked , and instead a message telling people to contact the problem channel. Even though officially it probably isn't an official freeview device. Although my new tivo had a freeview brochure included inside it even though it isn't an official device.

This is what they posted on there facebook wall. They deleted it shortly after.

Hi Björn,MediaWorks commented on their Wall post.MediaWorks wrote "Hey Björn, apologies for the delay in response. We are more than happy to supply Sony with our EPG content - however, due to the amount of resource required to supply listings it does come at a cost, of which is paid for (in some way, shape or form) by anyone publishing EPGs. Sony have so far elected not to pay for the MediaWorks content, therefore it's unable to be published the listings to their PS3 devices."

bjorn: This is what they posted on there facebook wall. They deleted it shortly after.

Hi Björn,MediaWorks commented on their Wall post.MediaWorks wrote "Hey Björn, apologies for the delay in response. We are more than happy to supply Sony with our EPG content - however, due to the amount of resource required to supply listings it does come at a cost, of which is paid for (in some way, shape or form) by anyone publishing EPGs. Sony have so far elected not to pay for the MediaWorks content, therefore it's unable to be published the listings to their PS3 devices."

Interesting, I would have thought it would not cost anything for MediaWorks to supply the EPG content due to the fact it is already available anyway?? When SCEE where doing tests prior to the NZ launch the tvtv EPG was complete with ALL the networks including Prime and MediaWorks. Once PlayTV hit the NZ shelves the full EPG carried on for around a week then Prime and MediaWorks content was removed off the tvtv mapping (I think someone forgot to remove it!!)Still can’t understand why the networks make this an issue....

wouldn't it be the same epg content that tivo gets? but at least they are honest about it and say that they want to be paid for it. Wonder if they will get paid for the igloo epg. That would be a problem if igloo couldn't get the epg. The playtv looks like quite good value. Interesting that on the dse they don't mention that it doesn't have the EPG for mediaworks channels. Sony really need to get their act together I think.